Millerville History
Millerville Township, Douglas County, Minnesota, USA
"JOE" WRITES ONCE AGAIN.
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An Interesting Letter of the Early Days of the Indian Invasion.
Alexandria Post News
© Thursday, Aug. 5, 1897.
Page 1
EDITOR POST NEWS -- If your correspondent will recollect I said
that after we had taken our families to St. Cloud we returned
to Alexandria to save such of our property as we could. Of course
A. M. Darling went with us on that trip. Yes, I recollect the episode
of the wagon. Say, do you remember the cheese donation made to us
by a farmer who said we might just as well have it as leave it
for "them air pesky Injuns," and then followed us to camp that
night at Stewart's bridge and demanded it back again because (as
he said) "the Sauk Centre militia wanted it. Just how much of it
he got I never knew. Yes, I still think it was "a foolhardy act"
for any two men to stay alone at that time. You probably recollect
that when the St. Cloud men passed through Alexandria on their way
to relieve Fort Abercrombie, they road onto the hill west of town
and saw the men picking up potatoes on the south side of the road.
They were hoeing and here were nearly one hundred men on horseback
within easy rifle range of them who made no attempt to avoid making
a noise. They sat on their horses awhile, then to see what they
would do Capt. Freeman fired his revolver. Both men threw
themselves flat down and rushed back to the bushes where were
their rifles. Another thing, I happen to know that their staying
amounted to almost a dare on the part of both of them. Do you
recollect a young man (I do not recall his name) who had been in
Mr. Gager's employ, who said that he would go to Chippewa alone
and bring back with him all of the teams and wagons left there,
about fifty of them, how we watched him when he started off, of
our suspicions of him, and when he went up there the night
following we saw his tracks only where he necessarily had to
cross a bridge, and after we had been in the house nearly an hour
and still wondering where he was, he came into the house with his
gun on his shoulder? Upon being questioned, he said he was tired
when he got there and had gone into the barn to take a sleep and
in the morning he would load up such things as he could handle
and come back. Was it bravery? I have another name for it. The
only reason he was not killed was because there was nothing there
to kill him. Do you recollect the night we camped at Hoffman's,
about three miles west of Sauk Centre, when we were on our way to
St. Cloud with our families? A few of his neighbors had assembled
there and no preparation had been made for defense. We asked him
if he had plenty of ammunition. He said no, but if they were
attacked they could send a man to Sauk Centre, it was only three
miles and they could get all they needed. That was bravery. On that
same evening, a man living south of Sauk Centre, brought his wife
into town, left her there, got a horse from someone, Mr. Mary I
think, and went back to save his property. The Indians killed him,
took his horse and burned his house and we saw the light of his
burning buildings when we were at Hoffman's. I am not impugning
any man's courage who was with our train, but I doubt very much
if all used even common discretion. I have fought the Indians
since then on their own ground and know more about them then I
did then, but I do not believe that there is a man living who
can face an Indian openly and say that he is afraid of him. It
is when you do not see him that you may well fear him without
laying yourself liable to the charge of cowardice. Yes, I knew
A. M. Darling well. When I attended my first term of school, he
furnished me transportation on his shoulders, and his mother
weaned him about twenty-two years before she inflicted that same
punishment upon me. There are probably few incidents connected
with that time that will ever become effaced from my memory, but
how to arrange them or condense them so as to make them interesting
to your readers, requires more time than I have to spare.
JOE.
E-mail: dwagner2@isd.net
©2003 DJW
Last Modified:
December 6, 2003